Having lost some of its limelight to fried chicken, sliders, and bao buns, the taco is finally making a comeback and it’s thanks to a new wave of taquerias set to hit the capital. Arriba Arriba.
First up is the trendy, late-night taqueria, Paradise Tacos. This place is primed for after-hours ME-JI-CO fun – it is, after all, taking over the Golden Grill on Hackney Road, once home to the infamous mezcal bar. Backed by London’s industry greats (Hawksmoor/Edition Hotel/Notting Hill Arts Club/Happiness Forgets), the first floor will be dedicated to simple but excellent tacos: think homemade corn tortillas with top-quality meat and fish cooked on charcoal. Refreshments are ice-cold beers, home made sodas and, of course, a range of tequilas and mezcals – available dangerously by the carafe. Downstairs, will be an American sports bar, Bad Sports, plastered in vintage American sports memorabilia.
Next, we have an Americano taqueria, Corazón, opening in Soho (dangerously close to UJHQ), by Laura Sheffield, a native Texan via New York City, with an impressive CV (previous work stints include Fischer’s and The Riding House Café). … But, it’s the weekend brunch we’re really excited about: from breakfast tacos including huevos benedict (ham hock hash, caramelised onions, eggs and green chilli hollandaise), to divorced eggs (a messy mixture of fried eggs, crispy corn tortillas and salsas rojo and verde) and buttermilk blue corn pancakes served with caramelised bananas, toasted pecans and cajeta. We’ll have them all.
Lastly, we have the serious taqueria, El Pastór by the Hart brothers (Barrafina and Quo Vadis). Opening in Borough, El Pastór has dedicated the entirety of the mezzanine floor to a tortilla factory, which will be producing freshly baked corn tortillas, made from scratch, twice daily. There’ll be a compact selection of tacos – meat, fish and vegetarian – served with a selection of salsas made freshly and daily in-house. Refreshments are taken just as seriously with a focus on mezcal (served neat with orange slices), tequila, sangria, Mexican beers, micheladas and margaritas. Olé!!
